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Table of contents
The Book of the Hamburgs.
EARLY HISTORY.
CHARACTERISTICS OF HAMBURGS.
CARE OF YOUNG CHICKS.
PREPARING HAMBURGS FOR EXHIBITION.
HINTS TO JUDGES.
The Book of the Hamburgs.
Long
before what we now call “fancy fowls” were known or recognized
(in fact, long before the memory of any person now living), Hamburgs
were kept and bred to feather among the peasants of Yorkshire and
Lancashire in England, and by them exhibited at the small town and
county fairs in their neighborhood. Of course they were then known
under different names, the Blacks being called “Black Pheasant
Fowls” and the Spangled varieties “Lancashire Mooneys” and
“Yorkshire Pheasants”; while such a variety as the Penciled
Hamburgs were either wholly unknown or else were so little thought of
that they have left no record of their origin, if, indeed, they are
natives of England at all.
EARLY HISTORY.
Mr.
Wright, who has traced these fowls back still further, inclines to
the belief that at some period whereof we have no knowledge the
Penciled varieties formed a part of the Hamburg family, although our
earliest positive knowledge traces them to direct importations from
Holland, where they were brought in great numbers, and were
originally known under the names of “Dutch Everyday Layers” or
“Dutch Everlasting Layers.”As
such a thing as a black or spangled variety of this fowl was utterly
unknown in Holland, it is presumable that at some period the penciled
varieties were exported to Holland and there bred and cherished,
while they were allowed to run out or sink into insignificance in
England. We cling to this belief so tenaciously on account of the
wonderful similitude which marks the characteristics of the Hamburg
family, in spite of the fact that one branch came from Holland and
the other is emphatically English. These two branches, namely, the
Penciled and the Spangles and Blacks, resemble no other varieties of
fowls in the slightest degree, while their common characteristics are
the absence of the incubating instinct, clean, slender legs, neat
rose combs, small, round and white ear-lobes, and the light, but
sweeping and graceful, lines of form which are wholly their own and
unapproachable by any other breed of fowls, no matter how fine their
symmetry. If this were not enough to stamp them with certainty of
having one origin, we mark the fact that spangled chickens are
frequently penciled
in their first feathers; while, as they mature, the black spangles or
moons are often surmounted by a light tip beyond them, thus again
approaching the penciled character, while conversely it will be found
that if penciled birds be bred too dark the last bar has a strong
tendency to become
too wide, thus
approaching a
spangled character.If
we consider the utter want of interest with which poultry was
regarded in the earlier days, and the fact that no traditions of any
account relating to fowls have been handed down, we may be justified
in believing that these facts prove our conjectures in regard to the
original identity of these varieties to be correct. From whence their
common progenitor came, we can have no idea, but that they did have
one we strongly believe. It may have been that they came from the
Blacks, as that variety is thought to be the oldest, and a cross
might have resulted in the broken color, or possibly these Blacks
having a number of white feathers may have been bred together until a
distinctly-marked plumage had been obtained.Bearing
in mind, however, that Aldrovandus speaks of a fowl which strongly
resembles the penciled variety as
Gallina Turcica, it
is possible that the Penciled was the original variety, and, as the
name suggests, of Eastern origin.These
conjectures and hypotheses are perplexing and unsatisfactory, and are
really of no practical value, being only of use in affording another
instance of the fascinating problems which constantly present
themselves to the poultry fancier of a philosophical and inquiring
turn of mind. This much appears to be certain: that of all our many
varieties of fancy fowls the Hamburg is by odds the oldest; indeed,
Mr. Wingfield claims that old records show that fowls with all the
Hamburg characteristics were bred in the yards of monasteries as
early as the fourteenth century.At
the great Birmingham show the authorities there, recognizing the
general resemblance between the Penciled, Spangled and Black
varieties, and the inconvenience of their numerous and varied
appellations, grouped them together under the general name of
Hamburgs, by which they have been known since, fanciers accepting
with alacrity a name which was at once convenient in classing the
breeds and which brought the separated members of what was no doubt a
distinct family together, as it is most certain they belong and
should be arranged.Many
breeders who have no knowledge of the deliberations at Birmingham
have been puzzled to guess why the name Hamburg should have been
chosen to designate a family which was mainly English, but these
“fathers of the fraternity” had too much business to transact to
allow them to inquire very carefully into the early history of this
fowl. The Rev. E. S. Dixon proposed “that as the penciled varieties
were then imported by the Levant merchants from the port of Hamburg
they should all take the general name of Hamburgs,” and, indeed,
this term is as euphonious and convenient as any other could be.
CHARACTERISTICS OF HAMBURGS.
In usefulness and beauty the
Hamburgs stand very prominently amongst that numerous collection of
fowls which our broad nomenclature denominates “fancy poultry.” The
plumage of every variety, either Penciled or Spangled, Silver,
Golden or Black, is at once beautiful and striking, attracting the
attention of strangers to the poultry yard or exhibition room when
all other breeds have failed to interest them, and drawing from
them involuntary tributes of admiration. And if they are so much
admired by cold and superficial observers, surely the Hamburg
fancier may be pardoned for his unbounded enthusiasm for his
favorites when every season and nearly every day unfolds new
beauties in his birds and renders them more fascinating and
delightful to his eye. The exquisite symmetry, the novel and
shapely rose combs, the snowy and delicate ear-lobes, the tapering
blue legs and graceful carriage give them an aristocratic and
“dressed up” appearance and render them the most beautiful of our
domestic fowls.The Hamburg fancier has plenty of scope in which to indulge
his taste, the different colors and markings affording an ample
variety from which to choose, while the general characteristics are
the same.
“Hamburgs,” says Mr. Beldon in Lewis Wright’s poultry book,
“are without doubt the most beautiful breed of poultry we possess,
as well as the most useful, all varieties being alike elegant and
beautiful. The dweller in the country will generally prefer the
Silver, while the citizen will take the Golden or Black; but all of
them, in their matchless variety of marking and color, will delight
the eye with the utmost degree which is perhaps possible of beauty
in fowls. Their marvelous beauty, however, would not recommend the
Hamburgs to the practical breeder so much as their wonderful
egg-producing qualities, which it has been claimed surpass those of
any other breed. The wonderful stories told of Hamburg
productiveness, while often more amusing than reliable, serve to
show that in any hands, in any climate and under the most adverse
circumstances they have proved very profitable to their owner
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